https://www.hollyvanvoorhisjourno.comRSS Feed for Holly VanVoorhisenWed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://whitmanwire.com/news/2026/03/13/wcwu-withdraws-request-for-recognition/On Friday, March 13, Whitman College Workers United (WCWU) withdrew a previous request for recognition from Whitman College administration. Their statement was attached to a March 13 email obtained by The Wire and sent to the Whitman Faculty Conversations Listserv by the WCWU Organizing Committee. The email communicates WCWU’s dissatisfaction with administrative decisions to initiate an election process through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). “Rather than listen to their employees, th...Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://whitmanwire.com/news/2026/03/13/wcwu-withdraws-request-for-recognition/https://whitmanwire.com/news/2026/04/10/bot-votes-to-reduce-employee-benefits-amid-rock-bottom-faculty-morale/On March 19, Professor of Art History Matthew Reynolds, Professor and Chair of Politics Aaron Strain and Associate Professor and Chair of Chemistry Jonathan Collins sent a list of signatures and document titled “The High Cost of Cuts” to a faculty Listserv. The document describes low morale among faculty as a result of ongoing financial changes and urges administrators to collaborate with faculty on financial decisions. Originally signed by 84 faculty members, the letter now has 91 signatures as...Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://whitmanwire.com/news/2026/04/10/bot-votes-to-reduce-employee-benefits-amid-rock-bottom-faculty-morale/https://whitmanwire.com/news/2026/03/06/whitman-college-will-not-voluntarily-recognize-wcwu/FEB. 19 2026 – Students, staff and faculty rallied outside Cleveland Commons in support of a newly proposed staff union — Whitman College Workers United (WCWU). The rally marched to Memorial Hall, where Peter Schultz delivered a letter to President Sarah Bolton, requesting that the college recognizes the new staff union without an election hosted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  WCWU received enough signed union authorization cards to forgo the NLRB election process if the college...Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://whitmanwire.com/news/2026/03/06/whitman-college-will-not-voluntarily-recognize-wcwu/https://whitmanwire.com/news/2026/03/12/president-bolton-discourages-wcwu-formation/UPDATE – March 13, 2026. 1:00 p.m. – During the March 10 meeting, a faculty vote on the “Faculty Motion Calling for Voluntary Recognition of Whitman College Workers United” took place. 86 faculty members voted “yes,” two voted “no” and three abstained from voting. A co-sponsor of the motion confirmed the outcome of the vote. On March 11, Whitman College President Sarah Bolton issued an official statement in an email to the Staff and Faculty Listservs with a number of concerns about the recent fo...Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://whitmanwire.com/news/2026/03/12/president-bolton-discourages-wcwu-formation/https://whitmanwire.com/news/2026/02/13/task-force-pilots-free-expression-area/On Jan. 5, Assistant Vice President of Student Life Juli Dunn emailed a campus announcement introducing new areas for free expression on campus. The two sites referenced in the email will act as pilot locations to test alternate areas for posting fliers and artwork to the fence located on the southwest side of the tennis courts. Dean of Students Kazi Joshua and a student task force proposed new locations for free expression in the spring of 2025 based on foot traffic around the tennis courts.  F...Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0100https://whitmanwire.com/news/2026/02/13/task-force-pilots-free-expression-area/https://whitmanwire.com/staff_name/holly-vanvoorhis/Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/staff_name/holly-vanvoorhis/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2023/11/02/dia-de-los-muertos-festivities-commence-in-walla-walla/Leaves fall to the ground in vibrant flurries of red, yellow and orange as October comes to a close. Fall festivities, however, are just getting started as various groups on and off campus prepare for Día de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, on Nov. 2nd. Sophia Bianco, the Resident Assistant for the Casa Hispana interest house, collaborated with the Whitman Events Board (WEB) to create a Día de Los Muertos event for anyone interested in remembering their loved ones. For Bianco and her residents,...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2023/11/02/dia-de-los-muertos-festivities-commence-in-walla-walla/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2023/10/05/whats-in-a-name-the-nomenclature-of-off-campus-houses/Whitman’s off-campus houses don titles like “The Garden” or “The Airport” because of the student initiative to label where they call home. Anyone driving down Isaacs may be familiar with a constant head swivel to read wooden boards decked out in acrylic paint and a goofy or relevant name created by both past and present students. The bright blue sign outside the “Disco”or the hand-painted carnival-style tent hanging above “The Circus” are a signature of campus life for those living on or around...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2023/10/05/whats-in-a-name-the-nomenclature-of-off-campus-houses/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2025/03/13/madeline-miller-talks-literary-witches-in-classics-lecture/On March 5, students, faculty and community members gathered in person at Kimball Theater and online via a Zoom video chat for a lecture on witches in Classical literature by author Madeline Miller. Miller, whose works include “The Song of Achilles” and “Circe,” is known for her retellings of Classical Greek myths with character-building and insight into characters like Achilles, Patroclus and Circe. In her lecture, Miller presented her process and personal research in writing “Circe,” with a fo...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2025/03/13/madeline-miller-talks-literary-witches-in-classics-lecture/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2024/02/29/embrace-the-gutter-space-with-hyperspatial/The Sheehan Gallery drips with vibrant colors and characters, both on the walls and in an audience meandering through the gallery space. A few straggling art students sketch the images playing on the walls, while others perch on a wooden stage in the middle of the gallery to take in every line, hue and gutter space in Sebastian A. Jones’ exhibit “HYPERSPATIAL: Comics & Character in the Fourth Dimension.” As I walked through the new exhibit, available to the public until early April, I felt as th...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2024/02/29/embrace-the-gutter-space-with-hyperspatial/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2025/02/20/volunteers-hone-read-aloud-techniques-with-the-walla-walla-county-rural-library-district/On Feb. 13, while snowfall covered Whitman’s campus in a sheet of icy white, students warmed up in Reid while Caitlin Hunsaker and Chris Eckstadt held a training session for a volunteer partnership program between Walla Walla public schools and Whitman volunteers. Hunsaker and Eckstadt work for the Walla Walla County Rural Library District and reached out last year to the StoryTime Project Leader, senior Mavie Pham, to organize training sessions between the library district’s expert storytellers...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2025/02/20/volunteers-hone-read-aloud-techniques-with-the-walla-walla-county-rural-library-district/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2024/04/04/carnival-extravaganza-celebrates-class-of-2024/Last Friday, as the weather warmed up and students took to grassy lawns throughout campus, the Whitman Events Board threw their first Commencement Carnival. The carnival marked fifty days until the class of 2024’s commencement this Spring, and featured a mechanical bull, face-painting, and food, amongst smiling faces of the senior class and their friends. Senior Astrid Ketcham, WEB Chair and events organizer, was inspired by last year’s commencement celebration which took place downtown at Big B...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2024/04/04/carnival-extravaganza-celebrates-class-of-2024/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2023/11/16/students-get-their-groove-on-with-drip-drop-dance-troupe/On Monday and Thursday evenings from six to seven, the dance studio rings with music and shuffling feet as the Drip Drop Dance troupe gathers students with all levels of experience to learn choreography and get onto the dance floor to move their bodies. Run by Caspian Pimpan, Clarisse Yee and Katherine Harris, the club has become a safe space for the three co-captains and the students they open the dance studio’s doors for. “[The club] is super low-stakes and about creating joy in movement toget...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2023/11/16/students-get-their-groove-on-with-drip-drop-dance-troupe/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2024/02/22/unmasking-education-and-entertainment-at-power-and-privilege-2024/On Thursday, Feb. 22, presenters will deliver lectures in Chism, Maxey and Reid for the 2024 Power and Privilege Symposium. This year’s theme, “Unmasked,” will draw attention to power dynamics on campus and in the world at large as presenters share their experiences and research. Rosaura Albizo, the Marketing Director for Power and Privilege, worked with the rest of the team to select this year’s theme based on campus interest in local and worldwide issues. “We wanted to emphasize the current pr...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2024/02/22/unmasking-education-and-entertainment-at-power-and-privilege-2024/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2024/02/01/students-join-the-kings-court-for-renaissance-faires-winter-ball/Shimmering tulle skirts and Renaissance-style YouTube covers of “Toxic,” “Poker Face” and traditional European folk music filled the Reid Ballroom on Jan. 26 at the Renaissance Faire’s second annual Winter Ball. The Renaissance Faire Planning Committee presented six dances taught before and during the ball. Efforts like these and others are at the forefront of the Renaissance Faire Planning Committee’s focus when organizing school-wide events.  The Committee’s lessons for all six dances meant th...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2024/02/01/students-join-the-kings-court-for-renaissance-faires-winter-ball/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2023/11/09/manuscripts-in-the-closet-event-in-the-archives-appeals-to-student-interests/On Oct. 30, the Whitman College and Pacific Northwest Archives displayed photographs, newspaper clippings and even printed out emails as they opened their doors to students and the public for a curated event. Students were greeted with a glitter-bound scrapbook detailing a local choral group, and Whitties filed into the classroom alongside locals with interests in public records. The archives, which have not hosted public events like this one in recent years, were abuzz with giggles as community...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2023/11/09/manuscripts-in-the-closet-event-in-the-archives-appeals-to-student-interests/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2025/04/10/tracking-history-last-chance-road-becomes-a-historic-site/Last Saturday, historians, railroad enthusiasts and Whitman alumni gathered for a dedication ceremony at Last Chance Road. This is where Walla Walla 2020, a local organization, unveiled a new sign designating a portion of the original railroad as a historic site. Former Whitman Professor Clark Colahan, who published his book “Walla Walla’s Blue Mountain Railroad in 1879” about the railroad, Daniel Clark ’65, and others spoke before the dedication. The presentation focused on an unfinished portio...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2025/04/10/tracking-history-last-chance-road-becomes-a-historic-site/https://whitmanwire.com/news/2025/08/23/breaking-stegner-hall-follows-suit-move-in-delays-continue-after-robart-hall/The Whitman Wire has been able to independently verify that Stegner Hall, one of the three residence halls in College Creek, is experiencing move-in delays. This follows shortly after the news that students living in Robart Hall, another College Creek residence hall, would be having their move-in day delayed until October of this year. In the meantime, a majority of affected Stegner residents will be moved to North Hall, which was officially closed in 2018 and was briefly re-opened as emergency...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/news/2025/08/23/breaking-stegner-hall-follows-suit-move-in-delays-continue-after-robart-hall/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2025/02/06/perilous-times-the-center-for-global-studies-prompts-political-engagement-with-m-gessens-talk/On Jan. 30, members of the Walla Walla community and Whitman College students funneled into the Maxey Auditorium for a talk delivered by New York Times journalist M. Gessen. A Russian-American war reporter, Gessen has published pieces on the war in Ukraine and genocide in Gaza. The second event in a year-long series titled The Press in Times of Peril, the talk focused on adjusting to — and questioning— a ‘new normal’ in the United States’ ever-changing political landscape. The previous event for...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2025/02/06/perilous-times-the-center-for-global-studies-prompts-political-engagement-with-m-gessens-talk/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2024/03/07/timber-culture-exhibit-showcases-black-history-in-the-pnw/Timber Culture, a traveling exhibit from the Maxville Heritage and Interpretive Center (MHIC) in Joseph, Oregon, is currently on display in the Maxey Museum. The exhibit features historic photographs of African American loggers in the Maxville work camp, abandoned today but revived by Executive Director of the MHIC, Gwendolyn Trice. For Trice, Timber Culture represents a personal history as well as a local history. Trice’s father and grandfather traveled in a boxcar amidst the cross-continental...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2024/03/07/timber-culture-exhibit-showcases-black-history-in-the-pnw/https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2023/12/07/oral-history-in-walla-walla-documentation-as-empowerment/Walla Walla is alive with stories, which some local and campus-based projects are recording for public record. For some, storytelling might look like listening in rapt attention. For others, it’s collecting source after source for personal or academic research. Across the board, storytelling means giving a voice to people or places with stories to tell. The Listener’s Project: Queremos Escucharte is one such organization working to record and remember forgotten or ignored stories in Walla Walla....Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/campus-life/2023/12/07/oral-history-in-walla-walla-documentation-as-empowerment/https://whitmanwire.com/news/2025/11/21/investigation-livelihoods-are-being-attacked-whitman-employees-struggle-to-navigate-rising-expenses-and-stagnating-salaries/UPDATE – Nov. 23, 2025. 2:12p.m. – Multiple corrections have been made to this article. They will be demarcated with double asterisks (**) to prevent confusion with pseudonyms. (1.) Gina Zandy Ohnstead disputes the claim – made by Professor White* – that professors lost out on bonuses. “Employees do not receive bonuses.” (2.) “Professors need 1 FTE, or five courses…” has been corrected to “Professors need 0.75 FTE, or four courses…” (3.) Jeff Hamrick’s quote, “We’ve got faculty that are not expe...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/news/2025/11/21/investigation-livelihoods-are-being-attacked-whitman-employees-struggle-to-navigate-rising-expenses-and-stagnating-salaries/https://whitmanwire.com/news/2025/09/19/breaking-student-detained-in-relation-to-repeatedly-pulled-fire-alarms/Sept. 19, 11:11 A.M. –  A member of the Whitman community was detained earlier today by the Walla Walla Police Department. Yesterday evening at approximately 8:00 PM and again at 12:20 AM students in Anderson and Stanton students evacuated residence halls after a Whitman community member pulled the building’s fire alarms. Students awoke on campus this morning to at least three additional fire alarms in buildings across campus and residence halls. The alarms were not caused by active fire or smo...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/news/2025/09/19/breaking-student-detained-in-relation-to-repeatedly-pulled-fire-alarms/https://whitmanwire.com/news/2025/10/08/harvey-hall-opens-yet-not-fully-finished/On Thursday, September 25th, Director of Residence Life, Andrew Johnson, sent a campus-wide email confirming Sunday, September 28th as the initial move-in date for Harvey Hall. Following a series of delays to all three residential halls in August, Harvey Hall was the last to announce move-in delays from its original opening date of August 29th and the first to open for student residence. Students moved into Harvey Hall on September 28th, October 4th and October 5th.  Stegner and Robart Halls are...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/news/2025/10/08/harvey-hall-opens-yet-not-fully-finished/https://whitmanwire.com/news/2025/11/21/trump-reduces-weight-loss-drug-costs/On Thursday, Nov. 6 President Donald Trump announced that the administration had collaborated with pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to lower the cost of GLP-1 drugs using Medicare and Medicaid coverage, along with the prospective implementation of the President’s pharmaceutical platform set to become operational in 2026, TrumpRX. Trump’s collaboration with the pharmaceutical giants aims to lower costs for both pill and injectable forms of semaglutide, or GLP-1s, which regulate...Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/news/2025/11/21/trump-reduces-weight-loss-drug-costs/https://whitmanwire.com/staff_name/holly-vanvoorhis/Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitmanwire.com/staff_name/holly-vanvoorhis/https://rangemedia.co/writing-intern-spokane-range/This summer the RANGE team had our first ~cohort~ of interns (OK, we had two) working alongside us. We carefully developed a program that would enable local students of any skill level to join our small worker-owned newsroom, grow into more challenging tasks, and produce meaningful journalism and put a call out to local colleges.  The result has been amazing to watch. We got to see Pascal Bostic, then a film student at Spokane Falls Community College, grow more confident behind the camera sho...Wed, 11 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://rangemedia.co/writing-intern-spokane-range/https://rangemedia.co/scraps-dogs-ferrari-spokane/Volunteers, employees and concerned residents were the first to raise concerns in 2023 about suspected unethical euthanasia at the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service (SCRAPS). SCRAPS is a public service that operates under contracts with several cities in Spokane County and the county itself to maintain good relationships between pet animals and humans. It licenses pets, maintains a pet food bank, retrieves lost pets and rehomes abandoned pets from a facility on Trent Avenue. The...Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://rangemedia.co/scraps-dogs-ferrari-spokane/https://rangemedia.co/budget-spokane-liberty-lake-library-camping-ban/Welcome to CIVICS, where we break down the week’s municipal meetings throughout the Inland Northwest, so you can get involved and speak out about the issues you care about.   It seems like it’s shaking up to be a less-spicy-than-usual-week, but here are some of the items that stick out to us:  Important meetings this week: It’s time for the fourth annual Tacos y Tequila Festival! This weekend will feature two days of tasty food and tequila, live music, craft vendors and entertainment, w...Mon, 19 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://rangemedia.co/budget-spokane-liberty-lake-library-camping-ban/https://rangemedia.co/cvsd-central-valley-school-district-budget/In less than a month, the Central Valley School District (CVSD) is scheduled to start classes. But as of now, it’s uncertain whether there will be money to buy gas for the school buses to run or to pay teachers to greet their new classes because the board has not passed its budget for the year. Though the approval of the budget has been scheduled for August in the past, this year the vote was scheduled for a July meeting after an informational presentation in late June. Instead of approving i...Mon, 12 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0100https://rangemedia.co/cvsd-central-valley-school-district-budget/